refusenik speaks in Sligo

Thursday April 10, 2003 23:08

by ollie - katalyzer

Ramy Kaplan for Israeli prime minister!

I'm trembling. I've just come from hearing Ramy Kaplan speak in Sligo IT. He's one of the 'courage to refuse' Israeli army soldiers (refusenicks)who are refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories.

Unfortunately, he only spoke here and in London on this speaking tour. He is one brave guy. I mean, the Israeli secret service have kidnapped people thousands of miles from Israel. One guy was kidnapped recently in Scotland and is now, to the best of my knowledge, in his 13th month of solitary confinement in an Israeli prison. If ever there was an army who 'fight the war on all fronts' its that one.

Ramy was so calm and softly spoken, yet to be doing what he's doing left me mesmorized and tearful and completely speachless.

The good news is that there are now 530 refusnicks in Israel, but the bad news is that peace seems further away than ever, asccording to Ramy. When they published their letter feb/march last year, outlining why they wouldn't serve in the occupied territories, Sharon's support dropped to 30% ,and they really were making progress. But not now, alas.

When he started to refuse, they treatened to promote him - a supra Machiavellian act! To promote him and put him in the place of his superiours would 'teach him' , as it were, it would put the blood onto his hands. But then the "Courage for Peace" movement started to emerge, and he joined up

Ramy was quite high up in the army when he decided 'enough was enough' - he had 100 men underneath him, and was jailed for refusing to allow his men to cut down orchards and olivegroves in Gaza. This act would have destroyed livelihoods and at least some food for many families, so his act really was a small and humble stand against the infliction of yet more suffering.

He mentioned ,and this is a sign of how bad things are now in Israel, that young Jews of Polish descent are trying to claim Polish citizenship. After all that happened to them, especially in Poland, where millions of them were wiped out during WW2. They think the whole world was against them, and are willing to do that to avoid having the Israeli passport.

I have to say that I detected a bit of hostility towards him, because of his Army backround ,which struck me as insane. I mean, the real world is the world where people see where they are and do sth about it. It is not the world of Caricature cardboard cut-out bad guys vs good guys.

One incredible moment was when an Iranian man, surnamed, of all things this week, Hussein, stood up and dialogued in an empatheic and genuine manner with one of the bravest men in Israel. And they agreed on so much; it stood out as a startling moment of unity and clarity in an extremely divergent world.

That's it. I'm not trembling now, but typing is still a lot easier than speaking.